Apology for women raped by father over 25 years

Two women who were raped and abused by their father over 25 years – bearing seven of his children – were given an apology by the authorities, including those in Sheffield, which failed to protect them.

The apology was made during the publication of the executive summary into a serious case review, which acknowledged the family had contact with 28 different agencies and 100 members of staff over 35 years.

The 56-year-old father is serving a life sentence for repeatedly raping his daughters, who went through 16 pregnancies between them.

The man, whose crimes have been likened to those of the Austrian rapist Josef Fritzl, fathered seven children with the women, two of whom are severely disabled.

The serious case review, which covers a 35-year period, showed the family moved repeatedly – 67 times – so the father could avoid detection. In November, Sheffield Crown Court heard the man’s campaign of terror and abuse started when the women were aged between eight and 10.

If they refused their father’s advances, they were badly beaten.

Both daughters were raped repeatedly during their ordeal, which started in 1981.

At the start they were attacked every day, while for long periods they would be raped two or three times a week. If they refused, they would be punched, kicked and sometimes held to the flames of a gas fire, burning their eyes and arms.

The court heard the defendant, who called himself the “gaffer” when at the family’s home, took pleasure in fathering children by his daughters and would continue to rape them despite problems with their pregnancies.

He would even rape them while they were pregnant and they would have to take it in turns to babysit their children while the other was forced to have sex with him.

In November, Judge Alan Goldsack QC told the court that questions would inevitably be asked as to what professionals had “been doing for the last 20 years”.

James Baird, representing the defendant, launched a stinging attack on social services in both Sheffield and Lincolnshire.

He said: “It must be inconceivable to those who have listened to this case that these offences have been carried out, in this day and age in a so-called civilised society, over such a long time and with such consequences, without them being reported or investigated.”

After the case, the women’s brother blamed social services for not protecting the family, saying authorities should have recognised something was wrong during his father’s quarter-of-a-century campaign of abuse. He said: “I blame a lot of people. I blame people that were meant to be looking after children because we were all meant to be under child protection at five, so I blame the people that should have been doing their jobs looking after us.”